In many food preparation locations, such as restaurants, institutional kitchens, and food transformation plants, large quantities of wastes, mostly from organic sources (animal, vegetal, synthetic) are sent, i.e. flushed, down the drains. This situation often leads to the clogging of the drain network or sewer, even though some kind of removal of solid and particulate matters is often performed prior to sending, i.e. discharging, waste fluids to the drain. This is mainly due to the presence of greasy matters, such as oils and fats, in the waste fluids and sewage, which tend to form a build-up or a coating on the inner walls of the pipes and ducts of the drain and sewer network. The thickness of such build-up or coating gradually increases until problems occur and urgent cleaning by specialized workers becomes necessary. This problem is also amplified by the negligence of many operators who often remove the drain strainer from the reservoirs, such as sinks, tubs, sumps, sunk draining traps, to expedite cleaning jobs, thus allowing more particulate matters to enter the drain pipe.
In an attempt to prevent such drain and sewer clogging and also to help respect governmental directions or regulations about limitations to the types and properties of wastes allowed for discharge to the main sewer, many conventional devices, usually called grease traps, are used to intercept and filter particulate matters. In some cases, biodegradation of the fatty matters from the sewage is provided by such devices, before these fatty matters reach the main sewer.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,670,149 issued to Francis on Jun. 2, 1987, a bacterial incubator device is provided for installation in a grease trap, together with the addition of culture strains of bacteria to facilitate organic reduction of waste materials. Furthermore, the bacterial incubator comprises high surface area elements, allowing for the multiplication of the solid bacterial growth surface area in the sewage collection system. Although the incubator may improve bio-reduction of wastes in the grease trap and downstream, it is not adapted to provide the treatment of the upstream drain piping and does not assist removal of particulate matters from the waste water at any level.
Although such devices may retain and eliminate some of the unwanted matters in the sewage, besides the bad odors generated in the vicinity of these floor grease traps, three main problems still remain. Firstly, regularly emptying the traps when full is expensive, especially when the work is accomplished by accredited teams and wastes are properly disposed of. Therefore, many non-accredited entrepreneurs offer disposal services at reduced cost but spread the wastes in the nature, causing environmental problems. Furthermore, omitting frequent clean-ups of the traps yields clogging and flooding of the traps, thus leading to the discharge of unwanted matters to the main sewer. Thirdly, such traps are located downstream a more or less elaborate network of drain piping. Therefore, they cannot prevent clogging of the upstream drain pipes.
For all the reasons discussed above, contaminants such as particulate, fatty and oily matters should be intercepted and eliminated as closely as possible to the source reservoir. Sinks are the most common place where wastes are disposed of, reaching the drain pipes and the sewer network or leaching field, in most food preparation locations. Other facilities, such as mechanic shops using sinks or tubs, for hand cleaning or for the cleaning of oily or greasy parts, and using oily sumps or pits, are also concerned with the problem of removing particulate matters and hydrocarbons from the waste fluids, drained from a reservoir.
Some existing devices and apparatuses contemplated this perspective of treating drain wastes and drain piping closer to the source, but only to a limited extent. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,351 issued to Peterson on Aug. 30, 1977, teaches a sink strainer device, which comprises an elongated cylinder mounted beneath a sink and a mesh strainer mounted into the cylinder and removable through a front opening. The device can intercept a small volume of solid or particulate matters entering the sink drain, but does not provide treatment of the greasy matters contained in the wastes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,098,813 granted to Cini on Aug. 8, 2000, a waste water filter system is disclosed. The waste water filter system comprises a disposable stretchable filter positioned in a collector body and removable therefrom through an opening. The filter retains particulate matters and grease without retaining the waste water. Although the system has a fairly large theoretical load capacity, some clogging of the filter mesh rapidly occurs due to the accumulation of greasy matters, thus requiring frequent manipulations (tapping) or changes of the partly filled filter bags. Furthermore, the large system is floor standing and must use an electrical pump to discharge the filtered waste water into the drain, thus requiring an electrical installation, which is not likely to be readily available around the sink.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,706,518 granted to Lorenz et al. on Mar. 16, 2004, a method and apparatus are disclosed to clear waste water pipes and grease traps clogged with grease, using bacteria and enzymes. However, the apparatus is complex, since it comprises data processing electronics, dosage apparatuses, mixer, temperature control and an activator vessel, in which bacteria from a dry concentrate are grown, for a given time at a predetermined temperature, to produce an aqueous grease solvent to be injected into the drain pipes.
Similarly, Japanese publication No 10-128386 of May 19, 1998, teaches an apparatus for decomposition and deodorization of oil and fat in kitchen waste liquids. The apparatus uses a floor standing bio-reactor to feed micro-organisms, such as bacteria or enzymes, just downstream grease dividing devices, such as filters and air stirring type of devices, mounted beneath the sink tank. Although the apparatus combines mechanical and biological treatments of the waste water near the source, to decompose oil and fat downstream, it fails to provide a convenient integrated apparatus, which does not require preparation and incubation of a bacteria mixture in a separate complex apparatus, for example. The separate complex apparatus generally comprises powered control, conditioning and pumping devices, with a plurality of moving parts and requiring power for operation.
It would therefore be a significant advance in the art of waste treatment apparatuses to provide simple, power-free, i.e. autonomous and un-powered, and low maintenance integrated apparatus and systems, capable of treating, at the source, the waste fluids, discharged in sinks or similar reservoirs, retaining unwanted particulate matters and promoting oil and fat biodegradation. By so doing, prevention of clogging in downstream drain pipes, grease traps and sewer networks or leaching fields is achieved as well as prevention of discharge of problematic and unwanted sewages in the environment.